1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electronic apparatus, and more particularly to an electronic apparatus that deals with digital data, such as audio data and image data, a data recording method for the electronic apparatus, and a storage medium storing a program for executing the data recording method.
2. Prior Art
Conventionally, a method of preventing unauthorized duplication of audio digital data, such as performance data, is employed in which a duplication-inhibiting flag is set in advance to an unassigned bit of data which is not necessary for processing the audio digital data, e.g. in playback of the performance data, and when an apparatus that deals with the digital data detects such a duplication-inhibiting flag set in performance data to be processed, the recording function (sound data recording, image data recording, etc.) of the apparatus is disabled or limited so as to inhibit the duplication of the data.
This function of inhibiting duplication is provided for preventing a user ignorant of the importance of copyright from performing unauthorized duplication of data and transferring the duplicate to a third person or appropriating part (or all) of another person's work for the user's own work without proper authorization.
However, not all acts associated with duplication of works are prohibited, and duplication of a work for a user's private pleasure is not regarded as an illegal act. Therefore, it raises a problem to place excessive restriction on acts of good users who understand the importance of copyright and perform duplication of data within a duly limited scope.
To avoid such a problem, apparatuses have come into use which have a function of giving a warning to a user whenever the user issues an instruction for copying data. Although the apparatuses caution users as to copying of data, they give the same user the same warning in the same situation. However, in spite of understanding the importance of copyright and taking heed thereof, if a user is given the same warning repeatedly as he becomes accustomed to the use of such an apparatus, he cannot help feeling the cautioning message pesky or bothersome. Further, the operation for clearing the warning message before each copying operation is troublesome, and causes a has beente of time and labor.